Musical journeys

Musical journeys

Tonight the Griffyn Ensemble will perform at the National Gallery of Australia – a newly composed program inspired by our closest neighbours, including Papua New Guinea, West Papua and Indonesia. (6.30pm start if you want to go). Part of their work will be an original composition by Michael Solis, the composer I’m working with to create Comicbook Opera. I wish I knew more musical technical terms to describe what he’s doing better.

Anyway I’m particularly (and selfishly) excited because I helped Michael find the right lyrics for the song at the end of the piece. There’s all sorts of exploration through the work and it now finishes in a song that is a fusion of Papua New Guinea Pidgeon and English. It was lots of fun to work on the song, push words about, probe and shape meaning and intent and learn more about PNG language, culture and taboos. Michael has spent time in PNG and it was interesting to see past the dry definitions into some of the cultural aspects of PNG language(“no we can use that word it’s really bad” “but we’re talking about bad things” “Yes but even saying that word is bad”).

It will be fun to see the words live, Michael’s put a lot of work into this piece.

Conflux is over

Conflux is over

Well Conflux was fun. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but MCing with Richard Harland seemed to be warmly received. I really enjoyed all the panels that I watched or was part of. At conventions panel fatigue can set in and all you want to do is hang out at the bar, but all the panels were so captivating that the bar got neglected.

I enjoyed the company of everyone at the convention and it was lovely to feel part of such a nice community.

edit: In the late night joy of blogging I mooshed two blog posts together, I’ve removed the philosophical bit that was here and will shape it into a separate post down the track

Conflux 5 Photo links – this will be updated as further links come my way.

So far I’ve found photos at the Voyager blog

As well as Cat Sparks’ perennial fabulousness Conflux 08

A few photos as part of a blog from a wonderful convention organiser

A post that contains Gillian facing the cream pie and here’s some more speakeasy shots (and a bit of the voices launch)

The NewYork speakeasy dinner proving to be the most popular place to take photographs

An excellent selection of blogging links from another excellent convention organiser. And this selection of blogging links as well

Closing Ceremony

Unexpected lovely surprise

Unexpected lovely surprise

Yesterday I got an unexpected phone call from Helen Fry editor of The Write Stuff, out of the Northern Rivers Writer’s Centre. Helen had been searching the internet, investigating comics and liked my website, and could I do an interview on the creative process! I was of course delighted and we had a lovely chat. There is so much to comics that of course we only scraped the tip of the iceberg, but it was wonderful to share the love. Unless strange things happen there should be an article in The Write Stuff sometime this year (sadly they do not have an electronic version so I won’t be able to link to it).

So thank you Helen, you made my day.

It’s really nice to get that kind of feedback about the website as well. I of course see all the things I could do to make it better, but it was welcoming and informative to someone wanting to know about Australian comics, so that’s a good start. If anyone has any suggestions about what works for them and what doesn’t or what they’d like to see blogged about please drop me a line.

Now onwards to Conflux and back to working on Comicbook Opera.

Conflux time of year

Conflux time of year

Conflux is almost upon us, Canberra’s annual Science Fiction Convention.

I’m really excited about the panels this year, lots of interesting, juicy subject matter, with some strong social/cultural analysis elements that makes my inner anthropologist squee with joy. I’m not sure how much I’ll get to experience much however, I’m co-mcing the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the open mic night, I’m runnning a three hour workshop on the Business of Comics, chairing two panels and on another.

I’m so glad I’m mcing with Richard Harland, as the responsibility of opening and closing feels quite large and Richard seems quite lovely.

Wish me luck!

Shoalhaven elections 2008

Shoalhaven elections 2008

I have been sidetracked in the writing game by the Shoalhaven Council elections, my Dad being an agent of change as always. We went down to the coast to help out on election day, it was a hot day and in places difficult, but it was important to be part of. Most people handing out flyers, on all sides of politics, were lovely and towards the end we were all very chatty and in places silly. I must say that some people, particularly in Mayor Watson’s camp, generated quite a bit of nastyness and there is nothing more annoying than people who play dirty pool accusing others of cheating. But cheerfulness and community won out on the whole.

The votes are still being counted, but political map has changed in Shoalhaven, as the local newspaper attests, and hopefully will change more. The future is tricky, but the future is open. Best wishes to all the councillors and new mayor, may they have open ears, honest dealings and good governance. Best wishes to the citizens of Shoalhaven in creating communities and cultures of change.

It was wonderful to chat to a woman at the polling booth who said that after hearing my father’s words she cast off her apathy (which feels like a survival skin sometimes) and decided that her voice and her vote are important. She felt that yes she could have the energy, the power, to pay attention and care. I hope she and many others hold onto that, she’s important, people are important, their voices are important.

Here’s to communities and cultures of empowerment and change.

The excitement of google + Scott McCloud => new comics

The excitement of google + Scott McCloud => new comics

Google will be releasing a web browser that looks really good.

And what’s really exciting for me is that they’ve used comics to explain what the new browser does and how it is different to other browsers. It’s a brilliant example of how comics can be used to educate and break down complex concepts in an entertaining way. Hurray for comics stimulating more parts of the brain than simple text and also making the brain slow down and chew the concepts.

In my comics essay (love letter) coming out in Meanjin in December I talk about comics having the ability to be a slow food movement for the brain. This comic is a perfect example of making it pleasurable for people to take the time to understand things… I know my understanding of web browsers in general has increased as well as having an unexpected depth of understanding about a new google product.

Scott McCloud was the perfect creator for this kind of comic and it’s exciting to see this kind of partnership, his vigorous and thoughtful exploration of ideas makes it an excellent match

Check out the Google Chrome Scott McCloud comic.

It’s all very exciting.

Wow, back from America and STUFF is happening

Wow, back from America and STUFF is happening

I’m back from America and it was a complete blast. I had an amazing time and met lots of amazing creators. A big shout out to all the folks back in the US of A and a shout out for all the folks back home that kept me sane and happy. You can see ramblings about my America experience on my YouTube account .

One of the side benefits of recording myself on YouTube (and warning the stuff there is pretty dorky) is that it gave me the confidence to start recording my music. It’s nothing fancy, pretty terrible sounding in fact, but I’m open to hearing myself now and learning how to make myself better for recording (a bit of technology might help there too). I’ve written 20 songs, and I’ve just finished getting rough grabs of most of them on garageband and started recording them again. It’s interesting to see how the sound evolves.

I’m hard at work on a musical for the Young Music Society summerschool production, workin with Michael Sollis. It’s really interesting to see how the collaboration process develops, the musical is slowly but surely getting there, every day shows progress and every meeting brings about changes for the better. Hopefully it will rock, it’s our first creation together, but it should be fun.

Freelance work at Inception Strategies is good with a steady flow of work keeping creditors at bay and I learn something from every project I do.

Hopefully I will have some good news on The Long Road, my gritty urban fantasy soon.

AND most importantly, I just saw Pablo Latona at his fabulous installation in Civic. Watch the live feed or go there in person, you have until noon saturday (Australian EST), watch it for it is mighty.

Hello world! Plus Archive

Hello world! Plus Archive

Liz Argall’s brand new website. Powered by WordPress it will hopefully get prettier as I learn the secret magic behind the curtains. I will be moving content over and decomissioning the old www.lizargall.com over the next few weeks.

Comments, criticisims, moral support are all very welcome. It’s a little bit scary learning a new toy! If there is something you would like to see please let me know.

See below for the archived news postings from my previous Website:

2008/06/20
Last changed: Jun 20, 2008 10:01 by Liz Argall

Warehouse Circus

Last night I handed the office keys to our new manager Colin Grant. I am officially no longer the manager, just a mentor, odd jobs gal, brain download gal for the next week or so. It feels very strange, liberating, sad, exciting, scary… the next chapter is opening and will be managing my own business, employing myself full time in a few short days. It will be wonderful to be able to have that in full focus, rather than stealing seconds from here and there. It’s wonderful to honour my ambitions and after laying lots of ground work and fall back positions just go for it.
I’m excited about Warehouse Circus’ new manager, I think he’s got the nitty gritty capacity and the big dreams, soul food stuff. He’s not afraid of big ideas, hard work, asking questions or talking to people.

It is such an exciting time for Warehouse, lots of stuff coming to fruition after many years of hard work. It’s going to be wonderful. New manager, new accommodation so very soon, a new life opening up for us.

ACT Writers and Readers Festival

I’m looking forward to the festival this weekend, volunteering and participating. Nothing like volunteering to do stuff to feel at home and get comfortable. I nearly signed up to volunteer for San Diego International Comics Convention, but decided I had to stay focused given I’ll be traveling half way across the world.

USA countdown

Speaking of Comiccon, it’s less than a month before I go America for Comic Con and World Con. It’s exciting, it’s scary, it’s wonderful. Part 3 of my Ozcomics articles on Comiccon series will be going up just before I leave. Wish me luck! There is so much to do, so much to complete (professional work as well as going overseas for a month stuff) and I’d like to go down to Shoalhaven and help Dad campaign for the mayoral seat before I go as well. It’s all coming together nicely, but I am a worry wart sometimes.

Lots of love to all

L

Posted at 20 Jun @ 10:01 AM by Liz Argall | 2 comments
2008/05/13
Last changed: May 13, 2008 08:07 by Liz Argall

Emerging Writers Festival

I’ve just got back from the Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne. It was fantastic and more than worth the price of admission, flights and buying new clothes as I discovered I’d left all my luggage at home! I don’t buy new clothes that often, so it was probably a good thing… or at least not as bad as it sounds. It was wonderful to spend time sharing ideas with such a diverse range of creators, poets, novelists, playwrites, even comic writers! If you’re interested in the craft of writing I’d say get yourself to the next one, regardless of how ’emerged’ you are, it’s such a delight to spend time talking about the business, process, craft, communities and inspirations of writing.

My only regret… I didn’t bring my camera and capture the event.

Warehouse Circus

After spending quite a while looking at how we structure ourselves as an organisation we’ve advertised for a new manager. Please drop us a line if you’re interested, you’ll get to play a pivotal role in the shaping of an exciting new Key Arts Organisation in Canberra. Warehouse Circus

Mayor of Shoalhaven?

My Dad might be running for Mayor of Shoalhaven (NSW) this year. I’m pretty darn proud of him and I’m delighted by the wonderful friends and community he has around him as well. He’s started up a blog Shoalhaven 2020 that articulates some excellent principles regardless of what electorate you belong to.

Posted at 13 May @ 1:27 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2008/04/18

The lovely folks at Canberra ArtSound FM have interviewed me twice! Initially in my role as manager of Warehouse Circus and then I was invited back into the studio to chat about comics and my ArtsACT grant to go to Comic-Con in San Diego.

Interview 1 will be broadcast at around 11am on Saturday April 19 and interview 2 the following week. Around ten minutes a piece… a gotta tell you pre-records are a little odd, I hope I don’t sound too terrible (I spoke a lot more eloquently about the circus when the tape wasn’t rolling). I got to choose a song and you’ll get to hear the gorgeous Liz Frencham and Rebecca Wright from Liz’s latest album You and Me.

Posted at 18 Apr @ 10:58 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2008/04/10
Last changed: Apr 10, 2008 08:44 by Liz Argall

I had a lovely interview with Tea Fougner from Comicspace in late May, Strange Dreams has been selected as a featured comic for the relaunched Comicspace once the merger with Webcomics Nation is all sorted. Very exciting news indeed. Tea really knows how to set a gal at ease and we had a fantastic time chatting geek girl to geek girl. It’ll be a while before Strange Dreams gets its day in the sun (the techo details of relaunching the comicspace/webcomicsnation website are not small) but on the basis of her interview technique I’d say if Tea offers to interview you, go for it. She is a lovely gal indeed and you won’t regret spending a while yarning with her.

Warehouse Circus has been featured in the media quite a bit lately, through the ACT Youth Co-alition’s launch of Youth Week and work that we’re doing with High School students with disabilities. What can I say, the circus is wonderful and it’s a real privilege to be its manager. My staff (eee I get to call them mine ) are awesome, our students are awesome and some of our parents are absolute gems, no if ands or buts.

While I love the circus I can’t wait until we advertise for a general manager and I can charge into the great unknown. When I return from San Diego Comicon and Denvention Worldcon I’ll be embarking on full time freelance work. I think I have the skills and the will to make it work, although it will certainly provide many challenges and require a lot of discipline and poverty from me. It’s exciting to be at this point, wish me luck!… and drop me a line if you’ve got some work to send my way.

Posted at 10 Apr @ 8:42 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2008/03/06

What the? Where did March come from?

Life at the Circus has been rewarding and exhausting. Warehouse Circus really is an important part of Canberra and it’s wonderful to be part of it. I’ve just come back from the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Conference, a really valuable conference… words cannot describe, it was fantastic.

Freelance work for Inception Strategies continues, going from the relaunch of beloved comic Condoman to a new project with a quick turn around time.

In the background my own creative work gurgles along, you will be able to see some of it on display at the next millarworld writing challenge. Check it out and vote on what script you like the most. Writing Doomocalypse was wicked fun and a great excuse to do lots of research, play with a lot of textures and write dialogue for characters with really specific language styles and accents (ahh the trickyness of going from TV to comics and the satisfaction when a friend starts giggling in their chair and says ‘that’s exactly what he’d say’).

Posted at 06 Mar @ 6:29 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2008/01/26

By day I am now manager of Warehouse Circus, a wonderful youth circus. It’s intense, it’s rewarding… and a little bit damaging to work/life balance. www.warehousecircus.org.au/

Strange Dreams webcomic is half a year old now and has just finished a story arch, check it out http://www.localactcomics.com.au/sdwebcomic . It’s been wonderful to have an ongoing story to develop and love, thanks Dave.

Posted at 26 Jan @ 3:55 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2007/11/04

In very exciting news Arts ACT has accepted my grant application for funding to go to San Diego International Comics Convention, so a very big thank you to the ACT Government for supporting comics and artistic development all round. As part of the project I’ll be writing articles for OzComics on how to make the most of the experience drawing on wisdom generously donated by fellow Aussie comics creators. A big thankyou to OzComics and Sureshot Presents for writing letters of reference and to the very lovely folks who have agreed to be interviewed (with possibly a few more pending).

Posted at 04 Nov @ 8:22 PM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2007/10/01

Well I’ve had my first Conflux and it was delightful to meet so many people of talent and passion.

I feel in a bit of a daze, full of so many things and not sure which to tackle first. I feel very privileged to have been invited to run a workshop, be in the Great Debate (which was a complete hoot, many thanks to our worthy opponents for feeding us such great material), on a panel and letting me squeeze into the book signing.

The look and feel of this website may change over the next few months as I experiment with ways of making it prettier.

Posted at 01 Oct @ 10:48 PM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2007/09/02
Last changed: Sep 02, 2007 19:07 by Liz Argall

The year is running away with speed. The Girls’ Guide to Guy Stuff has received lovely reviews, I’m so happy to be part of it (and so thankful for Komala’s wonderful art). More lovely web comics going up over at Local Act Comics. A quick list of links for Ozcomics and things bubbling away in the background as always.

I will be running a workshop on how to write comics at Conflux 29/09 at 1pm in Canberra. Free to attendees.

In other news my dad keeps doing wonderful stuff supporting communities in Africa. The family website is moving so that aplaceof.info can be more directly about community development and other such worthy things.

Posted at 02 Sep @ 3:03 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2007/08/01

Black dogs, an article on comic creators and depression has been published at OzComics. Check it out http://www.ozcomics.com/Making-Comics/blackdogs.html

I have a shiny new webcomic thanks to artist, publisher, way too busy guy Dave Cunning. The first two strips are up, check them out http://www.localactcomics.com.au/sdwebcomic. Strange Dreams, the younger years.

Posted at 01 Aug @ 11:13 AM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
2007/06/05

Welcome to the shiny new news section of Liz Space.

Upcoming excitements include a one page comic in The Friends of Lulu Girls’ Guide to Guy Stuff

And Strange Dreams will be coming out from Local Act Comics There will be webcomics, some previews in the next Local Act Anthology and the the actual mini-series (although it might be bound in the one book) towards the end of the year. The webcomic is a lot of fun, less serious than the actual comic and lets me explore the characters in their early years.

I’ll be running a comics writing workshop at Conflux this year as well. I’ve been meaning to hang out with the CSFG for some time now and they seem to be a pretty funky bunch.

I’m also delighted to be judging the Aussie 24 hour comics challenge again. It was a lot of work, but some great stuff was produced. They’ve settled on a name now Comikaze 24 hour challenge – check it out, some great prizes to be won.

Posted at 05 Jun @ 7:57 PM by Liz Argall | 0 comments
Come adventure in the woods with us

Come adventure in the woods with us

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